Magnetic tunnel junction devices and their uses are well-known in the art. Conventional magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) devices typically include a bottom contact electrode, a bottom magnetic layer, an oxidized Al barrier layer, a top magnetic layer and a top contact electrode. These devices are typically fabricated using a single deposition step that deposits all of the constituent layers as a complete stack. The complete stack is subsequently patterned to define the magnetic tunnel junction devices. MTJ devices fabricated in this manner can exhibit shorting through the barrier layer and magnetic coupling between the two magnetic electrodes.
It is therefore desirable to reduce the incidence of the aforementioned shorting and magnetic coupling phenomena. The present invention can reduce the incidence of these phenomena by using a two-step deposition process to deposit the MTJ stack, wherein respective portions of the MTJ stack are defined independently of one another.